Playlist: The Great Escape 2016

The CMU Insights @ The Great Escape conference is not the only thing going on in Brighton this week. Did you know that there are also bands playing there? Over 450 of the bastards. And your delegates pass gets you access to all of them.

Not that you’d be able to watch 450 odd bands in the space of three days. It’s just not possible. Trust me. So you’re going to have to form some sort of plan. But how to navigate a line-up of that size? Well, one way to do it – my preferred method – is to pick bands at random based on arbitrary reasons, such as quality of name, proximity to where you are standing, proximity to the queue for the band you actually wanted to see, and amount of free food being offered in order to get you through the door.

However, as I alluded to there, it’s possible that there are acts you already want to see in advance. So you might like to form a hybrid plan that is part random and part list of acts you are already interested in.

Which is a fairly convoluted way of saying, here is a playlist featuring ten acts we’re excited about seeing perform over the next three days.

Anna Meredith – Nautilius
Classical composer turned electronic artist Anna Meredith released her debut album ‘Varmints’ earlier this year, and seeing those songs performed live is a treat that it would be embarrassing for you to miss.

Highasakite – Someone Who’ll Get It
A must-see live band, Norway’s Highasakite are preparing for the release of their second album later this year, which singles ‘Someone Who’ll Get It’ and ‘Golden Ticket’ suggest will be excellent.

Kelly Lee Owens – 1 Of 3
First heard on Daniel Avery’s ‘Drone Logic’ album, Kelly Lee Owens has since followed up that initial boost with a series of solo singles, showing her as an impressive new talent in electronic music.

Brodka – Horses
Having just released her first entirely English-language album, ‘Clashes’, earlier this month, Poland’s Brodka makes intriguing, multi-layered pop that sounds great on record and, I’m guessing, very good live too.

Gilligan Moss – Choreograph
Chicago duo Gilligan Moss released their debut EP ‘Ceremonial’ last year, a collection of four tracks that instantly marked them out as an act with a special talent for making dance music with a strong emotional core.

Lady Leshurr – The Queen’s Speech Part 4
Birmingham rapper Lady Leshurr is getting more and more recognition of late, which is good because she’s great. Most recently her ‘Queen’s Speech’ series of freestyles have pushed her further towards the forefront of UK rap.

Connie Constance – Stars
Last year, Connie Constance released her debut single ‘Stars’, a collaboration with Blue Daisy that showed her as an impressive new singer-songwriter mixing realism with flights of imagination.

Fakear – La Loue Rousse
Preparing to release his debut album in June, French producer Fakear creates his own style of dense, warm electronic music.

Jambinai – They Keep Silence
South Korea is best known for its pop industry, but Jambinai open a door to a whole other world, performing a blend of folk, post-rock and electronic music on an unusual array of instruments.

Kloe – Touch
Glaswegian singer-songwriter Kloe has emerged as an impressive new voice in pop with her debut EP, ‘Teenage Craze’, building an early success that she’ll hopefully ride all the way to the top.